Wanke was charged March 1, 2006, in connection with the theft of a computer and found guilty of burglary in September 2007. He asked for a new trial, claiming that Clark had not effectively assisted in his defense. The motion was denied; Wanke was sentenced Aug. 7, 2008, to a 14-year term.

Wanke, an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center since the sentencing, had been a person of interest in the Clark homicide from the beginning, but no charges were filed until this week.

John France, also a Rockford attorney and a friend of Clark’s, expressed uneasiness in a letter he wrote a week after Clark’s death. It was printed in the March edition of Winnebago County Bar Association’s “The Lawyer.”

France said that before Clark was killed, he’d open the morning newspaper and read stories about “a world of progressing horror. Father hurls children from a bridge. ... Mother tortures children.” He was able to “protect myself because it’s not happening here, to me.”

But that changed Feb. 7: “It was happening in Rockford, and it happened to an attorney, and now it was real.”

France said Clark “wasn’t edgy, wasn’t inflammatory and wasn’t abrasive, which makes his death so much more ironic. ... When you learn of a situation like this, you find yourself wondering if this could have been you.”

Wanke has denied any involvement in Clark’s death.

Sam Cornn of Machesney Park is a friend of Wanke. Cornn got to know Wanke when Cornn worked at a computer store and Wanke was a customer. He doesn’t believe Wanke was involved in Clark’s death.

“Richard was anti-gun,” Cornn said.

Cornn said he was a witness for the case in a grand jury proceeding in 2008.

“They didn’t have enough evidence to charge him,” he said. “Why would they wait six years? I think it is cowardly that they would wait until you are close to release.”

Page 2 of 2 - Wanke’s projected parole date on the burglary conviction had been set for May 7.

Others are pleased with the murder charge.

Denise Giakas lives four doors from where Clark was shot several times in the back by a gunman who jumped out of a minivan and opened fire. Her kids were in the backyard at the time.

“I am very, very relieved,” she said. “I wondered if they would ever get these charges filed. How could a person come into a quiet neighborhood and do that to such a wonderful person?”

Barton L. Henbest, an attorney who is Clark’s son-in-law, said the family is “very pleased with the efforts of police.”